Friends forging a course together through the unexpected

Prost to Hofbrauhaus! September 30, 2014

Our friend Stephanie had her birthday dinner at Hofbrauhaus in Rosemont. All I knew about it was that it’s a German restaurant. I’m not sure I can adequately prepare you for the experience, but of course I’ll try. Holy Lord! When we walked in there it was the biggest loudest party I’ve seen in a long time. A live band (fully decked out in Lederhosen) was singing the National Anthem and people were standing on their seats holding the biggest mugs of beer I’ve ever seen singing at the top of their lungs. Servers wearing dirndl (I had to look up what this was called) were carrying 8 steins full of beer at a time. There were people taking shots and then getting paddled pretty seriously on the booty! I was totally overwhelmed. If I hadn’t been meeting a group I might have ran out of there. But it was a blast so I’m really glad I didn’t. I should note here that the night we were there it was the Oktoberfest celebration so that might affect the experience a bit.

The menu was filled with German specialties. We were laughing because almost every item was marked as a ‘Signature Item.’ I suppose that means you can’t really go wrong? I ended up ordering the Schnitzel (breaded pork cutlet) and it came with Bavarian potato salad and I just had to order a side of apple sauce. Dave ordered the Wurstplatte, which was a variety of sausages with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes and his was completely gone. I really enjoyed my meal and although it is on the pricey side, the portions were huge and I got to take half of mine to go. We quickly realized the smallest order of beer just looks silly and Dave promptly finished his first and ordered a bigger mug.

Then they announced a Stein Contest. Since we were right next to the stage, Dave was one of the first people to make it over there and got a chance to compete! The rules are you hold the full 1 liter stein at arms length and whoever can hold it the longest wins. Apparently it’s way more difficult than it sounds. The record was something like 4 minutes 30 seconds. Dave made it to around 3 minutes 30 seconds. That huge guy next to him in the picture was a bit of a cheater and ended up winning the contest. After some dancing on the benches and our friend received her paddling for her birthday we headed out. If you are looking for a unique restaurant experience that has a fall feeling to it, I would definitely recommend Hofbrauhaus. Just make sure you are in the mood to party!